Ms Cheryl Chan, Group Chief Strategy and Sustainability Officer, ST Engineering,

Board of Trustees,

Proud parents,

Esteemed faculty and staff,

Distinguished guests,

Ladies and gentlemen,

and most importantly, the graduating Class of 2026.

Good afternoon.

Today is a very special day. We are gathered here not only to witness your graduation, but to celebrate a defining milestone as you begin the next chapter of adulthood. Whether you choose to build a career in industry, start your own venture, or continue your education, your time at the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) will remain one of the most significant chapters of your academic journey.

As you take this moment to reflect and celebrate, it is timely to look ahead to a world evolving at an extraordinary pace. Over the past few years, artificial intelligence (AI) has moved from the background into the foreground of our lives. What was once experimental is now embedded in how we work, design and make decisions. In fact, it has now been elevated to a national priority as articulated by Prime Minister Lawrence Wong in his Budget speech in February 2026.

Not surprisingly, the speed of change has left many unsettled, as fears of replacement and displacement take root. After all, if AI can outperform us, what then is the value of a university education? How can humans compete against a machine that is seemingly smarter but also decidedly faster. SUTD, I believe, has the answer, and is uniquely positioned to respond holistically by supercharging our “school of design innovators” to the next level. To me, AI is about enhancing and re-imagining human innovation and intelligence in general.

In the last 17 years, we have become a university known for design, technology and innovation. These are strong foundations that we are now building upon to prepare for what comes next.

In a world transformed by AI, academic mastery alone will not be enough. It is necessary but not enough. The innovators of the future will need to combine technical excellence with creativity, adaptability and human-centred thinking.

That belief led us to take the next step in SUTD’s evolution. Last year, we pivoted to AI and introduced Design·AI as a new horizontal across the university, strengthening the interdisciplinary and hands-on approach that has always defined SUTD. We boldly launched SUTD as the world’s first “Design·AI University” in January 2025. We did not drop “tech”. This is our forte that we will further enhance with AI in education, research, innovation and enterprise. Simply put, we have pivoted to become the “Singapore University of Technology and Design and AI”, but this is a mouthful. SUTD remains committed and believes the pathway to the future is to nurture design innovators and innovator-leaders. Our main mission is always nurturing better innovators and humans that will flourish and thrive, not better tech or AI.

This emphasis on tech and design innovation is now apparent through the launch of DIVE, which stands for Design·AI Innovation and Venture Exploration. More than just a new initiative, DIVE represents the centerpiece in the next stage of SUTD’s evolution — one that places even greater emphasis on learning through doing and building, interdisciplinary collaboration and scaling ideas into real-world solutions. DIVE will also shift AI from software to hard tech. This is called Physical AI. Through DIVE, students will have more opportunities to experiment boldly, work across disciplines, learn domain knowledge, develop prototypes, build ventures and test ideas with real users and industry partners. Some will even get a chance to work with companies as Design·AI specialists to gain domain experience before they graduate.

DIVE also reflects a broader shift in how universities will nurture future innovators. Success will increasingly be measured not only by academic mastery, but also by the ability to create meaningful impact through innovation, problem-solving and venture experience, while gaining real world domain and work experience prior to graduating.

Although many of you may not have had the opportunity to experience DIVE fully during your undergraduate years, you have helped lay the foundations for this next chapter of SUTD’s journey. And as DIVE continues to grow, we hope many of you will one day return as postgraduate students, mentors, collaborators, entrepreneurs or partners within this expanding ecosystem. We are now laying the pathway for postgraduate programmes by innovation that is an extension of DIVE for the workforce.

SUTD has always been a university that nurtures leaders and innovators skilled in design and technology.

In a world where AI can generate answers, the real differentiator is no longer the answer itself. It is the ability to ask the right question and to understand why that question matters through design thinking.

More importantly, it is the ability to apply these human skills and human-centred perspectives with resilience, purpose and empathy in solving real-world problems for people and communities. That is what will distinguish you as graduates of SUTD.

Muhammad Irfan Bin Djuanda, from Engineering Systems and Design, is one such individual who exemplifies this. Through internships at DBS Bank and Johnson Controls International, he developed his domain expertise, discovering a passion for using data to improve organisational processes. For his Capstone project with Infineon Technologies, he leaned into AI, helping to develop a powerful technical assistant chatbot that streamlines information retrieval for developers. And crucially, he applied design thinking: despite having little prior experience, he stepped out of his comfort zone to design the chatbot’s user interface, learning through experimentation and collaboration to ensure the tool was intuitive for its users.

But what makes Irfan’s journey truly representative of an SUTD graduate is what he did beyond the classroom. He demonstrated a deep commitment to leadership and service through Youth Corps Singapore and ROOT. Whether mentoring youths-at-risk in Lengkok Bahru, supporting international students adjusting to life in Singapore, or fostering a stronger sense of belonging within our own campus community, Irfan showed us that true innovation requires more than just technical excellence. It requires empathy and a genuine desire to uplift the people around you.

Irfan’s story reflects an important lesson — that technology alone is never enough. AI can generate code and retrieve data at lightning speed, but it cannot mentor a youth-at-risk. It cannot foster a sense of belonging for a homesick student. What matters most is how we choose to wield these powerful tools.

At SUTD, we have also taught you the difference between using AI merely as a tool and working with it as a collaborator, ensuring you recognise that there are moments when you must rely on your own judgement and values to decide what should or should not be done.

Design thinking continues to play a critical role in the innovation process, reminding us that technology needs to be human-centric. In a world of increasingly powerful AI, the human factor becomes even more important. The challenges we face extend well beyond the technical — they are ethical, social and profoundly human.

Our valedictorian this year, Daniel Lim from Engineering Product Development, has spent his university life operating precisely in this human space. As a passionate engineer and creative leader, Daniel contributed significantly to campus life through both the arts and technology. As the Arts Cluster Representative, he led various initiatives and events that helped strengthen the visibility and vibrancy of SUTD’s Arts community. He also led the design of Fab.io, SUTD’s mascot, and directed SUTD’s student variety show The Night Shift. Furthermore, while balancing these commitments, he worked on projects such as DUET, a portable exercise device for the elderly, and PulseSense, a wearable ECG monitoring vest designed for high-impact activity and early cardiac monitoring.

What makes Daniel’s journey especially meaningful is not simply the number of things he accomplished, but the passion and purpose behind them. Whether designing, building, leading, mentoring or supporting others, he was driven by a genuine love for learning and for the people around him. His journey reminds us that innovation is not only driven by technical skill, but also by creativity, curiosity and the willingness to contribute to the communities we are part of.

This is why the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS) play such an important role in your education, helping you understand the cultural, political and societal contexts behind technological solutions. This year, we took it one step further by supercharging our Design and AI degree programme, creating two new interdisciplinary academic tracks that ensure your technical solutions are always grounded in social reality.

True innovation requires more than technical capability alone. It begins with empathy, a deep understanding of real human needs and the ability to design solutions that create real impact in people’s lives.

I share our recent report, “Designing a Human-AI Innovation Edge” – it reflects this shift. Developed with support from SGTech and SkillsFuture Singapore, the findings suggest that organisations increasingly value individuals who can bridge people, workflows and AI-enabled problem-solving. By lowering technical barriers and accelerating prototyping, AI has democratised innovation.

And that is why I am confident in your future. SUTD has prepared you to work with AI, work beyond AI and retain your human agency to work without AI.

As graduates of SUTD, you have learned that innovation is about more than building what is possible — it is about building what matters.

So, Class of 2026, I salute you for the hard work you have put in over the last four years. Today, you take on a new place in the SUTD family, no longer as students, but as alumni. Go forth with confidence. Be bold in your thinking. Be open in collaboration. And never lose sight of the human purpose behind what you create.

You are stepping into the future, with both the opportunity and responsibility to help design it.

Congratulations, Class of 2026! Go out and trailblaze a better world by design. The future isn’t just waiting for you; it’s waiting to be designed by you.

Thank you.